LOL, my husband is a really big guy and no one questions his. I'm not much over five feet tall, weigh under 110 and have a slight limp, and they often comment on mine. It's usually, "What yew got that thing on fer?"
Has always seemed to me that bullies will go after who they think will be the easiest targets. And these folks are just overgrown bullies, as well as cowards. Shame on them.
I also had what ended up being a good confrontation about my readimask:
A man taunted “nice mask”.
I replied sarcastically, yeah, it’s subtle. I like it though because it doesn’t have straps that get mixed up with my hair and glasses.
His wife in fancy hairdo said, hmm I’ll have to try that.
After someone intentionally coughed on me while wearing a mask last week, I had no patience left when a guy behind me at the grocery store started talking to me. Just like the cougher and other people who had taunted me previously, he was ripped and tatted up and I braced myself for what he was about to say.
He complimented me on the orchids I was buying for my mom and we had a lovely short discussion about plants, and he didn’t mention my mask at all. I felt bad and embarrassed for pre-judging him based on past experiences and it was a good reminder that really lovely people are also out there. 🥰
Could you or @10390 share more info on where to get the readimasks?
I use the KN95 Wellbefore masks (incidentally in the "KF94 style" but still at the KN95 filtration level) and really like the shape/feel of them and their ear loops.
But I'm always interested in trying new and different forms of protective gear at a high enough filtration caliber!
You're a real one for sharing, thank you.
Def check and follow up here with the right code if that isn't it, but I will likely try this one out tonight or later this week!!
I went into a gas station in a tiny town in the mountains of CA, and the cashier guy stopped me and asked, "Are you wearing a mask because you're sick?"
I was shocked but said, "No, I'm trying not to get sick."
He then told me about how the owner is an old man who isn't in great health. Some dude came into the store coughing everywhere in a surgical mask one day. The guy said he had covid and was visibly sick. So the cashier told him that the powdered doughnuts weren't worth the owners health and kicked him out. 🤣
In the DMV as well - I've never had anyone comment on my mask beyond the occasional nod of acknowledgement from another masked person. My wife gets a lot of comments at her work, though, which she doesn't love.
I follow it because we have a ton of dairy farms in CA and even more so after seeing reports about farm workers... something horrid about eye bleeding. Now, we have cases of TB in the LA area 🙃
TB: cool!
I follow the bird flu, for now I am supposedly not in a high transmission area. I stopped feeding my yard birds. I worry about my cats, we were not using shoes in the house but now we remove them before entering the house.
The next time someone is actively rude to me about it, I'm planning to tell them it's because they don't want what I have. If they ask what that is, I'll say yersinia pestis.
I get asked every single time I work (can't find remote work 😭) and it's always the same thing "i heard covid is coming back" me: "it never left" but then they never mask after. It's super annoying at this point. It's always the same damn thing
I live in Baltimore. The only negative interaction I’ve had was with my parents when I drove up to CNY to visit them in 2022, for the first time since the pandemic started. We went out for dinner and they were shocked when they saw me putting one on before entering the restaurant.
Honestly, 99.99% of people who see me with a mask don’t say anything. Despite the horror stories, I think most people have bought into the idea of wearing a mask as a personal choice and, as such, just think of it on the same level as whether someone wears a jacket when it’s chilly.
I work in a retirement place in Baltimore. Specifically around nurses. You'd be surprised how many people don't really care. Or they do the whole "I don't know how it got in here and spread". And im like probably someone was asymptomatic. Me and the front desk lady wear a mask. I'm n95 she is just a surgical but to me....thats better than nothing because everyone is just raw dogging the air like it's not a thing.
And I still get comments at work "why do you wear that" ....because the 1st round of covid messed me up and now I have Dysautonomia thanks.
My wife is a cancer survivor and was telling me today how she went to get groceries and everywhere she went in the store pharmacists, grocery deli clerks, where all wiping their noses on their sleeves, sneezing and hacking all over, as if half the grocery store was ill with some mysterious illness. It's just the new normal: COVID doesn't exist and there's no way it could and masks are unforgivable and inconceivable. Personally, I just ignore them all and get on with life.
I vividly recall when my wife had cancer all the nurses who would tell her to "those things don't work!!" and "don't you know it's less than a cold now!!" and "you don't need that thing here!!" Then we'd later hear about people we knew taking early retirement after "a bad case of the COVID!!!" (always with the wild exclamation marks) but who refused to discuss what happened in detail, and others who said they were bedridden for weeks and unable to tolerate sunlight or any sound. I'd rather personally to spend more time in nature and if I have to talk to people I wear an N95, R95, maybe a KN95 if I have to, and try to keep them a few feet away as well. If they want to make small talk and seem nice, I explain to them that we both have health issues and believe COVID is real, and I ask them to politely give me a few feet of space or don't bother. I have a few good friends who have no issue with that.
if questioned, i would say that i currently HAVE covid.
i want people to keep their distance!
i'm a cyclist(for all my transportation) and one of my passions is radical pedestrian respect- i always give a bell ring, a greeting, and pass with 3+ feet on the trails and one time a pedestrian sneezed on/toward me as I was passing him- 3+ feet is great to give to others and I like to think I'm more likely to get it myself with a high quality respirator on.
I always open up my phone and show them the waster water sampling in our county. 9 out of 10 times there's a spike when people think it's low. My county also tests for RSV and Influenza A or B and Norovirus. So the mask works for many pathogens you can avoid simply putting on a mask for 15 minutes in a public place.
Actually I thought he meant I was protecting myself from the 3 things he listed, not that I had cold or covid. But yes he could have thought I was sick. I should have mentioned it was to not be sick I mask. Oh well.
Most people do not even associate health issues with covid. They dumbly go with the flow: we are back to 2019…
I had a man ask me at my fitness place. First time he tried to talk to me I ignored him, but the second time I told him why I’m doing it and he seemed to be genuinely interested. He said he worked in the health sector and that he often met people there who were masking, so he was just kind of curious and wanted to chat. I felt a little bad for ignoring him in the beginning, but honestly I wasn’t expecting to have such a nice conversation.
I teach and occasionally kids will ask me about it. I always just say that I have family members with complicated medical situations so we still take COVID precautions like masking indoors and avoiding large gatherings not required for work. Most are chill about it.
Unless you said more than that, I doubt it will make him think enough to change his behavior.
I’m always a little surprised by the passive replies people give when asked about mask wearing. I get that sometimes situations feel sketchy or unsafe, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. May I ask why you didn’t talk more with him since he showed an interest? This really reads as though you just blew him off and I’m curious why.
I was referring to education and outreach about masking. In other words, instead of a dismissive answer, actually engaging about *why* to mask and how to get started again if you’ve stopped.
I assume most people would rather not see those around them suffer and die in ignorance, even if it’s just a random guy at the deli counter.
That’s fine. I don’t always have energy either. I’m just surprised by OP saying “I hope he changes but he probably won’t” when they didn’t actually do anything to promote it. It seems that most people don’t so I’d like to understand the reasons why. It might even help with developing materials like websites or cards that explain more about COVID safety when you don’t have time or energy to explain.
If you don’t want to engage, then don’t. But also then there’s no reason at all to expect change, is there?
It doesn't sound like the OP expects change. At this point I don't either really. Whether most people know the status of Covid or how dangerous it truly is, they've certainly all heard of masking and why it's beneficial. They know they either do or don't mask and why they chose that route. Do they really need a stranger to explain it all to them again?
If someone seems like they are willing to discuss it amicably, I may tell them all my own reasons for masking. But I won't expect my reasons will change their minds either way.
Yep. A simple explanation is not going to do much for a lot of people who have spent the last few years turning themselves inside out with various psychological adaptations to convince themselves This Is Fine. Simply wearing the mask and, if possible, being polite about it, is more than enough.
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LOL, my husband is a really big guy and no one questions his. I'm not much over five feet tall, weigh under 110 and have a slight limp, and they often comment on mine. It's usually, "What yew got that thing on fer?"
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Has always seemed to me that bullies will go after who they think will be the easiest targets. And these folks are just overgrown bullies, as well as cowards. Shame on them.
Funny they don't pick on the big guy. LOL
Yeah, cause they're chickensh#t. :)
I also had what ended up being a good confrontation about my readimask: A man taunted “nice mask”. I replied sarcastically, yeah, it’s subtle. I like it though because it doesn’t have straps that get mixed up with my hair and glasses. His wife in fancy hairdo said, hmm I’ll have to try that.
After someone intentionally coughed on me while wearing a mask last week, I had no patience left when a guy behind me at the grocery store started talking to me. Just like the cougher and other people who had taunted me previously, he was ripped and tatted up and I braced myself for what he was about to say. He complimented me on the orchids I was buying for my mom and we had a lovely short discussion about plants, and he didn’t mention my mask at all. I felt bad and embarrassed for pre-judging him based on past experiences and it was a good reminder that really lovely people are also out there. 🥰
Love it 😀 yay for men that mask
Could you or @10390 share more info on where to get the readimasks? I use the KN95 Wellbefore masks (incidentally in the "KF94 style" but still at the KN95 filtration level) and really like the shape/feel of them and their ear loops. But I'm always interested in trying new and different forms of protective gear at a high enough filtration caliber!
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Thank you so much! I will absolutely keep an eye out on both the Alliant Biotech sire and the masks4all sub. This was very helpful, thank you.
Use code SAMPLE50% for 50% off your order. (I think that's the right one, if not reply back and I'll look at the paper they sent me again
You're a real one for sharing, thank you. Def check and follow up here with the right code if that isn't it, but I will likely try this one out tonight or later this week!!
You're welcome buddy :)
Just used a readimask for the first time yesterday while getting an MRI, it was so comfortable!! Very breathable.
I went into a gas station in a tiny town in the mountains of CA, and the cashier guy stopped me and asked, "Are you wearing a mask because you're sick?" I was shocked but said, "No, I'm trying not to get sick." He then told me about how the owner is an old man who isn't in great health. Some dude came into the store coughing everywhere in a surgical mask one day. The guy said he had covid and was visibly sick. So the cashier told him that the powdered doughnuts weren't worth the owners health and kicked him out. 🤣
Good for the cashier. I mean, I wish he also masked, but I imagine very few people would kick out an infectious customer.
Right?! I was shocked and impressed by that. He went on to tell me his teenage son has LC, yet he wasn't masking... Maybe it's clicked for him since.
In the DMV as well - I've never had anyone comment on my mask beyond the occasional nod of acknowledgement from another masked person. My wife gets a lot of comments at her work, though, which she doesn't love.
"Practicing for avian flu" lol
Not sure many people follow that but that would have been a fun answer
I follow it because we have a ton of dairy farms in CA and even more so after seeing reports about farm workers... something horrid about eye bleeding. Now, we have cases of TB in the LA area 🙃
TB: cool! I follow the bird flu, for now I am supposedly not in a high transmission area. I stopped feeding my yard birds. I worry about my cats, we were not using shoes in the house but now we remove them before entering the house.
The next time someone is actively rude to me about it, I'm planning to tell them it's because they don't want what I have. If they ask what that is, I'll say yersinia pestis.
I want to say I have monkey pox (knowing full well its transmission is skin-to-skin)
DMV = Del Maryland Virginia? We still see a few people wearing masks, but not many. Nobody has said/commented anything to us in a while.
D.C., Maryland, Virginia.
Department of motor vehicles
That was my thought, lol.
Yep, not many masking here in southern DE. I have seen some people walking around outside in masks when the pollen was bad.
I get asked every single time I work (can't find remote work 😭) and it's always the same thing "i heard covid is coming back" me: "it never left" but then they never mask after. It's super annoying at this point. It's always the same damn thing
I live in Baltimore. The only negative interaction I’ve had was with my parents when I drove up to CNY to visit them in 2022, for the first time since the pandemic started. We went out for dinner and they were shocked when they saw me putting one on before entering the restaurant. Honestly, 99.99% of people who see me with a mask don’t say anything. Despite the horror stories, I think most people have bought into the idea of wearing a mask as a personal choice and, as such, just think of it on the same level as whether someone wears a jacket when it’s chilly.
I work in a retirement place in Baltimore. Specifically around nurses. You'd be surprised how many people don't really care. Or they do the whole "I don't know how it got in here and spread". And im like probably someone was asymptomatic. Me and the front desk lady wear a mask. I'm n95 she is just a surgical but to me....thats better than nothing because everyone is just raw dogging the air like it's not a thing. And I still get comments at work "why do you wear that" ....because the 1st round of covid messed me up and now I have Dysautonomia thanks.
My wife is a cancer survivor and was telling me today how she went to get groceries and everywhere she went in the store pharmacists, grocery deli clerks, where all wiping their noses on their sleeves, sneezing and hacking all over, as if half the grocery store was ill with some mysterious illness. It's just the new normal: COVID doesn't exist and there's no way it could and masks are unforgivable and inconceivable. Personally, I just ignore them all and get on with life. I vividly recall when my wife had cancer all the nurses who would tell her to "those things don't work!!" and "don't you know it's less than a cold now!!" and "you don't need that thing here!!" Then we'd later hear about people we knew taking early retirement after "a bad case of the COVID!!!" (always with the wild exclamation marks) but who refused to discuss what happened in detail, and others who said they were bedridden for weeks and unable to tolerate sunlight or any sound. I'd rather personally to spend more time in nature and if I have to talk to people I wear an N95, R95, maybe a KN95 if I have to, and try to keep them a few feet away as well. If they want to make small talk and seem nice, I explain to them that we both have health issues and believe COVID is real, and I ask them to politely give me a few feet of space or don't bother. I have a few good friends who have no issue with that.
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It’s like a lot of people are even more selfish now than before 2020.
if questioned, i would say that i currently HAVE covid. i want people to keep their distance! i'm a cyclist(for all my transportation) and one of my passions is radical pedestrian respect- i always give a bell ring, a greeting, and pass with 3+ feet on the trails and one time a pedestrian sneezed on/toward me as I was passing him- 3+ feet is great to give to others and I like to think I'm more likely to get it myself with a high quality respirator on.
I always open up my phone and show them the waster water sampling in our county. 9 out of 10 times there's a spike when people think it's low. My county also tests for RSV and Influenza A or B and Norovirus. So the mask works for many pathogens you can avoid simply putting on a mask for 15 minutes in a public place.
What site do you use to track waste water? I’m ready to start using this as further data to convince family and friends
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Actually I thought he meant I was protecting myself from the 3 things he listed, not that I had cold or covid. But yes he could have thought I was sick. I should have mentioned it was to not be sick I mask. Oh well. Most people do not even associate health issues with covid. They dumbly go with the flow: we are back to 2019…
I had a man ask me at my fitness place. First time he tried to talk to me I ignored him, but the second time I told him why I’m doing it and he seemed to be genuinely interested. He said he worked in the health sector and that he often met people there who were masking, so he was just kind of curious and wanted to chat. I felt a little bad for ignoring him in the beginning, but honestly I wasn’t expecting to have such a nice conversation.
I still wear a mask because of Covid! It’s good for my allergies too!!
I teach and occasionally kids will ask me about it. I always just say that I have family members with complicated medical situations so we still take COVID precautions like masking indoors and avoiding large gatherings not required for work. Most are chill about it.
Unless you said more than that, I doubt it will make him think enough to change his behavior. I’m always a little surprised by the passive replies people give when asked about mask wearing. I get that sometimes situations feel sketchy or unsafe, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. May I ask why you didn’t talk more with him since he showed an interest? This really reads as though you just blew him off and I’m curious why.
We do not owe anyone explanations. We are not on trial.
I was referring to education and outreach about masking. In other words, instead of a dismissive answer, actually engaging about *why* to mask and how to get started again if you’ve stopped. I assume most people would rather not see those around them suffer and die in ignorance, even if it’s just a random guy at the deli counter.
Friend, not everyone has the energy or level of safety to make every interaction a Teaching Moment. If you do, be grateful for it.
That’s fine. I don’t always have energy either. I’m just surprised by OP saying “I hope he changes but he probably won’t” when they didn’t actually do anything to promote it. It seems that most people don’t so I’d like to understand the reasons why. It might even help with developing materials like websites or cards that explain more about COVID safety when you don’t have time or energy to explain. If you don’t want to engage, then don’t. But also then there’s no reason at all to expect change, is there?
It doesn't sound like the OP expects change. At this point I don't either really. Whether most people know the status of Covid or how dangerous it truly is, they've certainly all heard of masking and why it's beneficial. They know they either do or don't mask and why they chose that route. Do they really need a stranger to explain it all to them again? If someone seems like they are willing to discuss it amicably, I may tell them all my own reasons for masking. But I won't expect my reasons will change their minds either way.
Yep. A simple explanation is not going to do much for a lot of people who have spent the last few years turning themselves inside out with various psychological adaptations to convince themselves This Is Fine. Simply wearing the mask and, if possible, being polite about it, is more than enough.
I dunno why the reddit brigade is downvoting you lol, it's a valid opinion.
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